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For the New Intellectual

In response to the practical problems of
the 1960s—problems similar to those we face today—many public figures were
calling for a retreat from intellectual concerns in favor of blind tradition or
range-of-the-moment pragmatism. Ayn Rand rejected this approach. She held
that abstract ideas are man’s basic means of dealing with practical life.
They enable him to understand concrete issues, to evaluate them, and to act
successfully to deal with them. The problem with Western civilization, she
held, was not that it was too intellectual, but that too many of its
intellectuals accepted and propagated fundamentally wrong ideas. What the world
needs urgently, she said, are New Intellectuals.

For the New Intellectual is Ayn Rand’s manifesto on the
fundamental clash between producers and their enemies in Western civilization,
the philosophical ideas responsible for this conflict, and the philosophy
necessary to lead Western civilization to new heights.

The 47-page title essay, a sweeping chronicle of the rise and fall of
reason, freedom and capitalism in Western civilization—of how the
rise was due primarily to Aristotle’s influence and the fall, to the
default of philosophers and intellectuals—explains why new intellectuals are
necessary to right America’s, and the world’s, course. The essay presents Ayn
Rand’s distinctive view of the role of ideas in shaping history.